The Hustler (1961), 134
minutes, D: Robert Rossen
A dramatic, realistic character study based on Walter Tevis' novel.
A young, arrogantly-cocky, anti-hero, pool-hall hustler, "Fast
Eddie" Felson (Paul Newman), challenges acclaimed, cool, professional
Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason) in Ames Billiards Room in New York
City. The naive, talented, and ultimately self-destructive challenger
loses. Defeated and self-pitying, he meets and falls in love with
another loner - alcoholic, desperate, waifish cripple Sarah Packard
(Piper Laurie) - whom he ultimately forsakes. He attracts the attention
of slimy, calculating, venal, and repulsive promoter Bert Gordon
(George C. Scott). With financial backing from the pimpish entrepreneur,
Felson struggles to get back on top - at a great cost to his own
self-esteem and soul. Reprised twenty-five years later, with Paul
Newman as an older, wiser Eddie Felson in director Martin Scorsese's Color
of Money.

The Innocents (1961, UK), 99 minutes, D: Jack
Clayton

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), 190 minutes,
D: Stanley Kramer
During the Nuremberg war crime trials (which occurred during the
post-war years from 1945-1949), crimes against humanity (Nazi atrocities)
were prosecuted. Three years of trials had passed, and most of
the major Nazis had been tried. There were four additional German
judges who were brought to trial in 1948 - for using their offices
to swear allegiance to Nazi policies, and conduct Nazi sterilization
and cleansing policies. The main trial judge was retired American
Dan Haywood (Spencer Tracy) in a three-man judiciary, while the
defendants were represented by Hans Rolfe (Maximilian Schell),
and the prosecutor was strident and vicious Colonel Tad Lawson
(Richard Widmark), known for liberating the camps. One of the four
defendants was well-reknowned author and professor Ernst Janning
(Burt Lancaster), who objected to the trial altogether and remained
silent. There were specifically two claims against Janning, who
eventually testified under oath: (1) the Feldenstein case (Janning
condemned elderly Jew Feldenstein to death for having sex with
Irene Hoffman (Judy Garland), an Aryan, to abide by the Nazi's
Racial Pollution law); and (2) the Petersen case (Janning had approved
the sterilization of Rudolph Petersen, because he was 'feeble-minded'). Judge Haywood sentenced each of the
four judges to life imprisonment, although the decision was not
unanimous. As Rolfe predicted, none of those condemned to a sentence
less than death at any of the Nuremberg trials was still serving
their term just over a decade later. All of the judges were released
within a few years.

Splendor in the Grass (1961), 124
minutes, D: Elia Kazan
A tragic, coming-of-age melodrama set in the mid-1920s in a small,
rural Kansas town, from playwright William Inge's original, award-winning
script. Star-crossed, teenaged sweethearts, poor HS senior Wilma
Dean "Deanie" Loomis (Natalie Wood) and rich Bud Stamper
(Warren Beatty in his film debut) fall deeply and passionately in
love, but are repressed by the sexual mores of the time, their class
differences, and disapproval from their parents - especially her
prudish, puritanical mother (Audrey Christie) and his rigid, domineering
father (Pat Hingle). Deanie's pent-up sexual longings cause her to
almost go insane in a memorable bathtub scene. Repercussions cause
Bud to chase after slutty girl Juanita Howard (Jan Norris), and eventually
marry Italian Angelina (Zohra Lampert), while Deanie is institutionalized
following a suicidal nervous breakdown. Years later, the two meet
again and she resolves her feelings about him.

West Side Story (1961), 153
minutes, D: Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
An energetically-choreographed, Best Picture-winning musical that
is loosely based on Shakespeare's tale of ill-fated lovers, Romeo
and Juliet. A landmark, highly-honored, ground-breaking Broadway
musical transposed to the big screen and set on location in 1950s
New York on the Upper West Side. With a memorable musical score from
Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Includes such popular
songs as "The Jet Song," "America," "Cool," "I
Feel Pretty," "Something's Coming," "Tonight," "One
Hand, One Heart," and "Maria." Two rival teenaged
gangs, the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo (George Chakiris)
and the white Jets, led by Riff (Russ Tamblyn) rumble with each other
for turf on the sidewalks and streets of the city. Two young people
on opposing sides, Polish Jet member Tony (Richard Beymer) and Bernardo's
sister Maria (Natalie Wood) become 'star-crossed' lovers. His attempts
at peace-making during a rumble accidentally lead to the deaths of
both gang leaders and further tragic circumstances in a tear-stained
scene set on an outdoor basketball court.